You could do the best work in the world. Now it’s time to tell everyone. But how do you know if your marketing efforts are working?
Tracking your nonprofit’s brand awareness is important to create clarity around your Return On Investment (ROI). What are the results of your investment? What kind of impact did it bring in? Did it actually connect you with your target audience?
Successful nonprofits need to be able to justify their expenses to be more effective with their marketing efforts in the future. But the question is: What are some ways we can track brand awareness?
Social listening
If social media is vital for your brand, you will need to keep your ear to the ground to see what’s happening. Social media insights (native to the platforms) or social listening tools allow you to track brand mentions, see your most successful posts, and track ads. You can discover unique mentions of your brand and, if it fits your strategy, engage with them. Most listening tools will allow you to track the reach of brand awareness mentions and compare your metrics to your competitors to give you a comparison.
You can also set up Google Alerts for your organization’s name or website. While it won’t provide any metrics, it is a free way to be alerted if anyone writes about you on the web.
Check search rankings
Search engines are often the golden goose, but they can be difficult to rank well. Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is takes time and effort to build. It’s not going to be quick like paid advertising or some social media blasts.
While it can be overwhelming to create your own keyword strategy by yourself, we recommend starting small where there is low competition but high traffic. If you serve an area, focus on ranking locally rather than internationally. “Foster care California” has a huge search range, where “foster care L.A. country” could be more successful. Google yourself from time to time to see how you show up for general and narrow keyword terms. Google your competitors to see what terms they show up on.
Use Google Ads Keyword Planner tool to get started. Pick only one keyword per landing page, and build that into your titles, content, and call to actions. Monitor keywords that are relevant to the market you’re in and watch for any new trends.
Monitor external traffic for brand awareness
Other websites organically linking to yours is an excellent sign of you having a strong brand. It shows that people are talking about you and value you.
There are a few ways you can build your external traffic. One is through reputable articles websites, blogs, podcasts, and influencers. Having them feature an interview or story about your organization can really boost your website’s rankings. Databases and review sites are also great. Avoid link farms or anything that looks or feels scammy. Google knows and Google will punish.
To get started, try SEM’s backlink checker to get some insights on who is linking to your website.
Learn more
Discover 8 more tips on how to measure your brand’s awareness with DesignRush. They look at many ways how to measure brand awareness and metrics, as well as the importance of tracking your brand’s awareness.
